South Bay Digest

Inglewood : Landlord Gets $17,500 Fine

A Los Angeles area real estate magnate who owns several apartment buildings in Inglewood has been fined $17,500 and placed on three years' probation after pleading guilty to 20 health code violations at local buildings.

Vijaynand Sharma, who owns more than 15 apartment buildings in Inglewood, was given the maximum penalty for the violations in Inglewood Municipal Court because he was already on probation from earlier violations in Los Angeles, said Adriana Burger, senior deputy city attorney for Inglewood. Those included failing to provide water for tenants in apartment buildings in Hollywood and Koreatown, Burger said.

Sharma's health code violations in Inglewood include improper ventilation for gas appliances, holes in walls and floors and leaking sewage, she said. Sharma also pleaded guilty to failing to provide sprinklers and fire extinguishers--a violation that fire officials said contributed to the rapid spread of a fire last summer in a two-story building that Sharma owns at 3700 W. Century Blvd.

Twenty-five residents and three firefighters were injured in the Aug. 19 blaze, which prompted health and fire officials to investigate other buildings owned by Sharma.